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I’m bored, cranky for no apparent reason, and don’t feel like doing shit, so here’s a blog post for you all about ten beauty products I am totally in love with right now.

1) Bumble & Bumble Thickening Full Form Mousse

This stuff is freaking awesome. Thanks to my sister for getting me hooked on Bumble & Bumble. I’m going to have her get me a few more of these before we move, as she gets them at cost, and I pay her for it. Woot! This stuff really thickens up my hair and gives it the body that it needs.

2) BeneFit Erase Paste

Always a favorite of mine, it’s the only product that covers up my under eye area, which unfortunately has dark coloring due to genetics. I will never stop using this!

3) MAC’s Painterly Paint Pot

Originally I was introduced to this about two years ago by a makeup artist at my local MAC store. It’s become my to-go primer for my eye shadow, and I also use it to tone down my other paint pot, Indianwood. A little goes a long way, all you have to do is gently pat or swirl your finger tip (yeah, I use my fingers) on it, and pat on your eye lid. Use a featherweight touch, don’t dig your finger into it.

4) Clinique Advanced Coverup

For when my face is absolutely being a bitch to me, which seems to be quite often lately because of stress, this is the only cover up I use to hide those nasty blemishes. Man I wish I had the perfect skin I had in my teens, and now I’m cursed with off and on adult acne. Ugh. This stuff works well though, and I love it. I’ve bought it consistently for years.

5) Clinique Brow Keeper

I also have used this for years, and then last fall ventured over into the Anastasia brow area to explore a bit, but ultimately came back to this little gem. It’s a colored gel pencil that colors and holds the eyebrow hairs in place. I’ve been using this since 2004!

6) TheBalm Meet Matt(e) Nude eye shadow palette

Wow, this is so amazing. The shadows are very buttery and extremely easy to apply. I don’t care much for a lot of shimmer, so this is perfect for those days I want a neutral nude look. I scored it for half off too!

7) BeneFit Fine One One

I discovered this gem via Birchbox, and it’s my to-go blush. I love that it’s just a “swipe and go” type of product, and perfect for an easy application of color on my cheeks.

8) Tresemme Dry Shampoo

I probably use this almost every day, even on days I wash my hair. Probably the best product I have ever used in my life, and it only costs about $4.50 at Target. LOVE love love LOVE it!

9) Urban Decay All Nighter Spray

This is something every woman should have in her arsenal. My makeup stays put all day long when I use this. Simply perfect.

10) Mac’s “Hug Me” Lipstick

I have a handful of lip products, and two other favorites are by Urban Decay, but I got this for free and it’s actually my favorite color. I prefer to go more nude with my lips, unlike my eyes where I am often rocking green eyeliner or green eyeshadow, so this color is perfect for me.

You’ve probably noticed I’m a bit of a makeup snob by all the high end brands. Not really, I just like them so I buy them. I have plenty of drugstore brands too that I won’t go without, like Neutrogena eye makeup remover and Target’s face wipes, as well as Sally Hansen nail polish to name a few. I do have too much eye shadow, the bulk of it being by Urban Decay, and I am a mascara junkie, my favorite being Smoky Lash by Makeup Forever. I do want to tone down my makeup collection though, so some of it is going home with my sister this summer 🙂

I’m just about ready to say “screw it” to the hair & beauty page on Pinterest, and all the sephora, birchbox and other random beauty crap.

It’s hard keeping up, yo!

I am coming to the realization that it’s just too much pressure on us women to look like that (perfection), all the freaking time. I spent an HOUR this morning doing my hair and makeup, and all for what…a quick trip to the grocery store and volunteering at my kids’ school? Ok, well, I do have to go out later today, so it wasn’t all for naught, but I still felt like it was just too much.

I was so frustrated this morning because my hair was all frizzy and not cooperating with me, and my makeup wouldn’t set right. My mascara and eye lashes had a mind of their own this morning, and didn’t want to cooperate with each other, let alone myself. One eye looked perfect, the other was all spidery leg like. The perfect eye shadow combo I had envisioned in my mind, two of my favorite colors…MAC’s Girlie and Copperplate, didn’t blend well, and then my black liquid eyeliner crapped out on me. My eyebrows are in desperate need of a trim, and I have a huge zit on my cheek that came out of nowhere yesterday too! And to top it all off, my foundation made me look too pale and I don’t know how to contour well. I just threw on some blush and bronzer after that and hoped they would look ok.

Sometimes I just want to say fuck all this beauty stuff, there is too much pressure (online) to have all this crap, look a certain way and always have perfect makeup. If I don’t know how to highlight and contour my face like a pro, who cares? If I don’t dye my hair all the time, who cares? For the record, i do dye it a few times a year, but I am lazy right now and have lots of grey growing in. Yep, I have earned many new grey hairs in the last 3.5 years. I just walked out of the house thinking, oh well, I’ll just deal with it and who cares if it doesn’t work out today because there is always another day.

But then I took a picture for my husband (we send pictures to each other every day 🙂 ), and it turns out, it didn’t look all that bad after all, did it?

Wait, that sounds wrong. I really didn’t have hot sausage and mustard, i just sang it in my head like that. Bonus points if you get the reference, and even more if you went to high school with me!

Anyway, when we last left off, I informed you that I’m getting married this month! I bought a cute little cocktail dress that I’ll show off later on, and that was a super easy purchase. I walked into Macy’s one day, found it in my size, and bought it. It was cheap too!

The shoes have been a difficult choice for me. Because I’m not a super thin girl, and I have high arches, I have to be mindful of my footwear. I found some amazing purple and black suede pumps at Lane Bryant a few weeks ago, and promptly purchased them. But they didn’t match my dress 😦 and they hurt like a bitch when they were on my feet. I looked, and looked and looked some more. I spent hours perusing zappos, and DSW online, and payless and anywhere else I could think of, but nothing caught my eye at all. I only had one criteria they had to meet, and that was…

They had to be purple

I don’t know what it is with me and purple, but I wanted some funky colored shoes. I found some cute 4″ heels at payless, and bought those too. They’ll be delivered sometime this week or next actually, and I do LOVE them. They’re a deep eggplant colored patent leather, and were my first choice even though I couldn’t try them on. I still wasn’t satisfied though, so even though I had ordered them, I went to Macy’s last week with my friend Nat, and looked for shoes.

It was like a tractor beam pulling me in…

I swear, I saw THE shoes and I went “Ohhhhhhhhhh” in a sing song voice, with my hands stretched out in front of me as I walked towards them. And they had them in my size. And they are gorgeous. So so so so gorgeous.

That’s not a great shot of them, but the only one the Macy’s website had. I think I might have a love affair with these shoes! The only downside is that I’m going to be known as Mrs Amazon, because they make me a whopping 6’1″ tall in them!

I did purchase not one, but TWO pairs of shoes. I’m not totally decided yet because I have yet to see which one matches my dress (I pick up the shoes on Wednesday). I do love the other pair as well, but not as much as the purple ones. I’ll most likely keep both though because I can always use them for a military ball, or on our honeymoon next summer. I don’t have any formal shoes at all, so they will be used for a long time.

These are my other beauties, and aren’t they gorgeous too? I just can’t decide which one I love more. I’ll try them both on with my dress and see what I think.